Fighting Chuck Hagel–Not The Worst Idea Ever (Now With Update!)

…conservatives should not hesitate to roast liberals for the hypocrisy and cynicism inherent in the “Democrats for Hagel” bandwagon. If that vicious bastard Andrew Sullivan supports Hagel, this is reason enough for any patriotic American to oppose the Hagel nomination. And the obverse of this brutal logic is that we must welcome every ally to our cause of defeating Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, in order to inflict maximum embarrassment on the Democrats. They might “win” — Hagel’s nomination may be approved by the Senate — but the conservative strategy must be aimed at making that “win” as damaging as possible to the reputation of the Democratic Party.

If we can’t beat them, at least make sure we hurt them.

I knew I was sorta miffed at this Jazz Shaw piece, but I really couldn’t figure out why until I read The Other McCain’s post.

The thing is, I sorta agree with a lot of Shaw’s argument. Hagel isn’t the worst nominee Obama could pick for the job of Secretary of Defense. The President could always find someone less qualified, more chicken-shit or more leftist than Hagel, so fighting him might not be all that productive.

Under certain circumstances, I’d probably counsel the same thing. If it was early in Obama’s first term, fighting against Hagel would be more painful. The GOP would’ve had a much harder time beating up on a Hagel nomination at that point, and it would’ve cost them more to do so.

However, floating the Hagel trial balloon now means a Republican nomination fight makes more sense. Obama’s had far too many victories lately. He won a bitter election just a few months ago. He just got the GOP to cave on taxes during the fiscal cliff train wreck. The President has momentum and the Republicans should being trying to halt it using any opportunity at hand.

What does a fight actually cost Republicans? Congress’ approval ratings are a burning-hot eighteen percent. Seriousconservatives, people who at one point identified with the GOP brand, are kinda done with the party. In a way, the Republicans almost have to have a fight, if only to remind people that they still exist.

Even more importantly, it’s not like Chuck Hagel is some beloved conservative stalwart. Yeah, I guess he helped spike the Kyoto Treaty back in the day. When pondering that, it’s also important to remember that the sun shines on a dog’s ass every once on a while. Meanwhile Hagel was against the surge in Iraq. Hagel has said no to a military strike against Iran, which won him the enduring respect of Iran’s mullah-run media. Even fellow RINO maverick John McCain doesn’t like the guy.

Hagel has been wrong about a lot of stuff. Wrong about military stuff. That should be good enough for Republicans to pick a fight with him and his BFF Commander-in-Chief.

The era of Republican reasonableness should be over. They have nothing to lose by confronting Hagel. They have a lot to gain. Obama is the one with his political capital hanging in the wind. It’s time for the GOP get a win–any kind of win–against the President for a change.

UPDATE: Linked by the great Dustbury, who makes this observation about Republican courage.

…if the GOP imagines that it might someday want to grow a spine, it would help if the party had some vague familiarity with vertebrae, doncha know.

If the Republicans really wanna show they’re brave truth tellers unafraid of their own shadow, I have a phrase they could use–free of charge:

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that fighting anyone that Obama might nominate would be a bad idea. The problems is that Obama is not going to nominate anyone who is any good. And he has no problem with recess appointments.

In the next election, we just have to win the Senate. Meanwhile, we fight and fight and fight. Doesn’t do any harm to point out the glaring flaws in Obama’s nominees.